TO D. I. KURSKY ON THE QUESTION OF LEASES AND CONCESSIONS IN AGRICULTURE[1]

Written:Written on October 25, 1921Published:First published in 1924 in the preface by D. I. Kursky to the bookPyaty Vserossiisky syezd deyatelei sovetskoi yustitsii.Stenografichesky otchot(Fifth All-Russia Congress of Soviet Judiciary. Stenographic Report), Juridical Publishing House of the People’s Commissariat for Justice of the R.S.F.S.R., Moscow.

      Printed from the original.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 36,

      page551.Translated:Andrew RothsteinTranscription\Markup:R. CymbalaPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive.You may freely copy, distribute,
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ComradeKursky,

Youshould go deeply into the question ofleasesandconcessionsin agriculture.

Youhave not gone into it sufficiently.

Prohibitionof leasing in principle is of vast importance.
He who works the land has possession of it.

Theremust be no leasing.

Butleasing of astate farmor “uncultivated land”?

Thismust be separated out.

Thisis a special type.

Whoeverworks has possessionhere too. The state is the
owner, the tenant of the state farm cultivates. This is,
strictly speaking, not a tenant, nor is it a lease in the
ordinary sense.

Ratherit is transfer ofmanagement.

Itis essential to make a more detailed and circumstantial
study of the matter.

[1]Writtenduring the preparations for the Ninth Congress of Soviets,
which discussed the question of measures to build up and develop
agriculture. Lease of land was prohibited under the legislation
then in force (Decree on Land adopted by the Second Congress of
Soviets and the Law on the Socialisation of Land). The transition
to NEP and the need to take steps to strengthen and develop
peasant farming raised the question of allowing some lease of land.
The Ninth Congress discussed it and adopted a relevant decision.
Only labour and short-term lease of land was allowed under the
Land Code of the R.S.F.S.R. adopted by the Fourth Session of the
Ninth All-Russia Central Executive Committee in October 1922
(see present edition, Vol. 33, p. 392).

Concessionsin agriculture were governed by special legislation.